desperate

/'despərit/

Thân thiện

A desperate man clung to a life raft in the stormy sea.

Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless: Describing a situation that is extremely dangerous and offers little or no hope of a positive outcome.
   • Showing extreme urgency or intensity because of great need or desire: Describing a feeling or action driven by an overwhelming and urgent need.
   • Showing extreme courage undertaken in desperation as a last resort: Describing actions that are courageous because they are done out of desperation when all else has failed.
   • Dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or despair: Describing a person or their behavior that is extremely reckless, often due to a feeling of hopelessness.
   • Arising from or marked by despair or loss of hope: Describing something that is caused by or shows complete hopelessness.

2. Noun:

   • A person who is frightened and in need of help: Referring to an individual who is in a state of despair and urgently requires assistance.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective:

  • The patient was in a desperate condition. (The patient's state was extremely serious and nearly hopeless.)
  • She felt a desperate need to find her lost child. (She felt an intensely urgent need to locate her child.)
  • They made a desperate attempt to save the company. (They made a final, courageous effort to rescue the company, knowing it might fail.)
  • The desperate criminal took hostages. (The criminal, acting out of despair, took hostages.)
  • He let out a desperate cry for help. (He shouted a cry that came from complete hopelessness.)

• Noun:

  • Charities aim to help the desperate. (Charities aim to assist people who are in despair and need.)

Advanced Usage

• "to be desperate for something": to want or need something very much and urgently.

  • The refugees were desperate for food and water. (The refugees had an urgent, overwhelming need for food and water.)

• "a desperate measure": an extreme action taken when all other options have failed.

  • Selling the family heirloom was a desperate measure to pay the bills. (Selling the valuable family item was an extreme action taken due to a hopeless situation.)

Variants and Related Words

• Desperately (adverb): in a desperate manner.

  • He searched desperately for the missing key. (He searched with extreme urgency and intensity.)

• Desperation (noun): a state of despair, typically one that results in rash or extreme behavior.

  • In a moment of desperation, he called his old rival for help. (Acting from a state of hopelessness, he contacted his rival.)

Synonyms

• Hopeless: having no expectation of good or success.
• Dire: extremely serious or urgent.
• Reckless: without thinking or caring about the consequences of an action.

Related Phrases (Phrasal Verbs)

• Despair of: to lose all hope about someone or something. (Note: This is a verb phrase using "despair," a related noun, not a phrasal verb with "desperate").
  • She began to despair of ever finding a solution. (She started to lose all hope of finding a solution.)

Related Idioms

• At one's wits' end: so worried or desperate that you do not know what to do next. (This idiom conveys a similar feeling of desperation).
  • After hours of troubleshooting, the engineer was at his wits' end. (The engineer was completely desperate and did not know what else to try.)

Học thuật

Adjective

1. fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless
   • a desperate illness
   • on all fronts the Allies were in a desperate situation due to lack of materiel- G.C.Marshall
   • a dire emergency
2. showing extreme urgency or intensity especially because of great need or desire
   • felt a desperate urge to confess
   • a desperate need for recognition
3. showing extreme courage; especially of actions courageously undertaken in desperation as a last resort
   • made a last desperate attempt to reach the climber
   • the desperate gallantry of our naval task forces marked the turning point in the Pacific war- G.C.Marshall
   • they took heroic measures to save his life
4. (of persons) dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or despair
   • a desperate criminal
   • taken hostage of desperate men
5. desperately determined
   • do-or-die revolutionaries
   • a do-or-die conflict
6. arising from or marked by despair or loss of hope
   • a despairing view of the world situation
   • the last despairing plea of the condemned criminal
   • a desperate cry for help
   • helpless and desperate--as if at the end of his tether
   • her desperate screams

Noun

1. a person who is frightened and in need of help
   • they prey on the hopes of the desperate

Từ đồng nghĩa

• dire
• heroic
• do-or-die
• despairing